Isotope aided studies of the bioavailability of iron from common diets from Peru

Abstract

The nutritional iron absorption from a typical peruvian diet was studied by the Eakins and Brown method. The foods were breakfast: coffee and bread with butter; lunch: vegetable soup rice with cow tripe stew and lemonade; dinner: vegetable soup and bread. The results show that despite low iron content in the meals, which is not enough to meet daily iron requirements absorption was good in lunch possibly by the action of the promoters ascorbic acid (lemonade) and heme iron (cow tripe). Iron absorption in lunch was good and different from dinner and breakfast. We cannot conclude if the low iron absorption from bread is affected by coffee.